Yearly Archives: 2011

News & Updates

Sundance Screening Schedule by

Official_selectionSFF12

The dates for our World Premiere screenings at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival have been announced! On January 20th, at 8:30PM at the Library Center Theatre in Park City, UT, Sundance audiences will get to see what director Ira Sachs and cast and crew have worked so hard on this past year. Five additional screenings have been scheduled throughout the duration of the festival, and you can visit our Movie page or our Sundance page to see when, and get details on how to purchase tickets. We hope to see you there!

Gay New York

Dear Biddy B by

JimBidgood-1

Our girl Biddy B aka the magnificent photographer, filmmaker and wit James Bidgood – is back this week to tackle two problems, one of etiquette and the other of sexual appetites. Have a problem that needs a-solvin’? Send it in to adambaran1@gmail.com and we’ll get you an answer!

Hi Biddy B,

My little niece wants to be a movie star badly and wants to move to, of course, Hollywood. I know a bit about the business, but in today’s world of show business even the Disney kids know how to work a stripper pole. I’m worried that her desperation will lead her down a wrong road as, sorry sis, she’s not that bright. What should I tell her and how should I advise her?

Best,

A Worried Uncle

Dear Worried Uncle,

Well, Dahling, whatever council you impart, your niece will no doubt do exactly the opposite and so were I you, I would help her make ready for transport and pay her bus fare making sure to caution her that no matter how dire her circumstances she must never join an order of nuns! More…

Tell Your Story

Jonah’s Story (and mine) by

This past weekend, three months after bullied teen Jonah Mowry first posted a powerful confessional video detailing his life as a bullied gay teen, the video went viral and was viewed nearly half a million times. I watched it on Sunday after seeing 23 friends had posted it on their Facebook page. If you haven’t seen the video yet it’s worth watching, as it’s a definitely moving, though sadly unsurprising tale of the cruelty of other children and the failure of parents and adults to stop it. More…

Gay New York

Remembering Chloe by

KatChloe

I met Chloe Dzubilo for the first time at Blacklips Performance Cult at Pyramid Club the night they staged her play “Vagina.” I found it to be a hilarious, mystical and transformative piece, beautiful and transgressive all at once. Chloe herself was beautiful and transgressive, mystical and hilarious. We became famous friends in blue walled dingy basements, in various apartments, parks and diners. Once, at brunch, really early in our friendship I witnessed a healing between Chloe and her father. She shared that intimate moment with me and she cried. I felt like I’d found a sister. I would call her when I was freaking out; with compassion and humor, she would talk me through.

I photographed Chloe a lot. With her band, with lovers, with friends who looked like her, with her dog, alone, nude, clothed, with writing on her body: “precious diva” “family” “love tummy.” When I finally decided to make a film, she had to be in it. It was a girl gang movie, Gang Girls 2000 Betsy came up with the gang name, Blades, which I elaborated to the Famous Blades of Chinatown, prompted by the freely given use of Chloe’s Chinatown apartment as the gang headquarters. Chloe was to play the leader of the gang. I said, “What should your gang name be?” She didn’t hesitate. “Transella Coutorture,” she replied. More…

News & Updates

Keep The Lights On In Park City! by

by Jean Christophe Husson

We are thrilled to announce that Keep The Lights On has been accepted into the US Dramatic Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which runs from January 19 – 29th in Park City, Utah. Directed by Ira Sachs, Keep The Lights On is one of 16 films in the section, selected from 2,059 to apply. The film stars Thure Lindhardt (Into the Wild, Angels and Demons, Flame & Citron) and Zachary Booth (Damages, Dark Horse) as two men who meet in New York City in the late 1990′s and begin to build a home and life together. Over the course of the next ten years, they struggle to maintain their relationship while battling their own compulsions and addictions. A film about sex, friendship, intimacy and most of all, love, Keep the Lights On takes an honest look at the nature of relationships in our times.

Written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias (Madame Satã, Seuly in the Sky), the film co-stars Julianne Nicholson (Boardwalk Empire, Tully), Souléymane Sy Savané (Goodbye Solo, Machine Gun Preacher), and Paprika Steen (The Celebration, Applause, Open Hearts). The Producers are Sachs, Lucas Joaquin and Marie Therese Guirgis; and Executive Producers are Ali Betil, Jawal Nga, Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen; Associate Producers are Adam Hohenberg, Iddo Patt and Alex Scharfman.

The Sundance Film Festival and director Ira Sachs have a history that spans almost 20 years. Sachs’ films Lady (1994), The Delta (1997), Forty Shades of Blue (2005), and Last Address (2010) all premiered at Sundance, with Forty Shades of Blue winning the Grand Jury Prize in 2005. Sachs has also mentored other filmmakers at the 2008 and 2010 Sundance Director’s Lab, 2010 Israel Film Lab, and the 2011 Screenwriter’s Lab. He is thrilled to be back at Sundance to premiere Keep The Lights On.

The Sundance Film Festival has a long history of supporting important new queer cinema, with the festival premiering and giving awards to now classic queer films including Paris is Burning, Poison, The Kids are Alright, Longtime Companion, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Sachs created both the popular New York IFC Center film series Queer/Art/Film, which selects artists to present films that influenced them, and Queer/Art/Mentorship, a new program that pairs emerging artists with established artists in their field. Keep The Lights On is Ira Sachs’ first feature film to feature gay subject matter since 1997′s The Delta, and comes at a time when queer films like Weekend, Circumstance, and Pariah have achieved widespread critical and audience acclaim.

We will be announcing screening dates soon, so please keep checking our Movie section for more news and updates and info about Keep the Lights On, and join us for more information on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@ktlomovie). These platforms will have the most accurate and up-to-date information about the film, including announcements of upcoming screening.

Gay New York

Walking With Ghosts by

polaroids119

The meatrack is a small forest tucked behind the beach and sand dunes of Fire Island. It bridges the gay and queer summer communities of The Pines and Cherry Grove. It is where people go to meet, have sex and make art. It is a place where dry bones breathe.

The first time I went through the meatrack I followed the sunburned neck of pioneering contemporary artist AA Bronson. I was working as his assistant; accompanying him and artist Ryan Brewer as they scouted locations for an art project they were doing involving rituals, and the use of a long black, Victorian Comme Des Garcons skirt AA had recently acquired.

As I kept on eye on AA’s long white luminescent beard, I struggled to take in everything. I had been hearing about Fire Island my whole gay life – the adventures of Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and Christopher Isherwood, as well as how, according to Larry Kramer, the island and it’s hedonistic vibe was the sign of the gay man’s demise. It was heady to be walking on the shifting ground, moved by the intense weight of emotions washing over me. As soon as I stepped into the rack I felt very unalone. More…

Art & Autobiography

My Thanksgiving Prayer by

Each year I try to watch this great video of the legendary William S. Burroughs reading his poem “Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986″, and think about how I would update it. The poem is taken from the collection Tornado Alley and the video above was directed by Gus Van Sant, who had cast Burroughs as a drug-addled priest in his 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy. The video for me seems especially prescient this year and if could make my own 2011 Thanksgiving day prayers they’d go something like this: More…

Tell Your Story

OCCUPY RIO by

Occupy Rio

“Isn’t Brazil always occupied???” That was the one line first response to these photos that I got from my friend Chris. My response was a line from a poem by Ani DiFranco titled Self Evident where she’s talking about the USA: “Cause take away our Playstations and we are a third world nation.”

I’m in Rio because last week I was production managing for Trajal Harrell’s 20 Looks Or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church(s) at the Panorama Performance Festival. I was supposed to leave tomorrow but I cancelled my return flight to stay here and continue to help any way that I can at Cinelândia Square which is where the OCUPA RIO! Movement has set up shop. I especially feel obligated to stay because there is a complete and total local media black out here. (Thanks for publishing this!) And as soon as I can find the means, I’ll make my way over to São Paulo to see how things work there. More…

Art & Autobiography

Joan’s Digest: A Film Quarterly by

If you’re not Occupying lower Manhattan tonight, head over to Anthology Film Archives to kick off the launch of a new online feminist film quarterly called Joan’s Digest, which aims, according to editor Miriam Bale to “step away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews and focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self.” Tonight’s screening is all about Joans on the beach, with Joan Crawford in the ultra-campy Female on the Beach at 6:45PM and then Jean Renoir’s The Woman on the Beach, starring Joan Bennett. From 8:30 to 11:30PM complimentary Joan-themed bourbon cocktails will be served. The program repeats on November 21st and 22nd.

Gay New York

The Beginnings of MIX by

To mark the occasion of the opening night of the 24th New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, the festival’s co-founder Jim Hubbard has generously allowed us to reprint the following essay detailing the origins of the festival, first published in French to mark the 15th anniversary of Scratch Cinema in Paris in 1999. Much has changed within the festival since this article was first written, but the history of its birth remains the same.

Sarah Schulman and I were smoking pot one cold night in February 1987. As Sarah passed me the joint, she said, “We should do a lesbian and gay experimental film festival.” I said, “I’ve always wanted to do one. When should we do it?” “September.” “Do you think we could do it for two weeks?” “No, one week is more than enough work.” And so, the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival was conceived.

When we approached Howard Guttenplan, director of Millennium, to rent the space for the festival, he asked us if we thought there was an audience for this work. I replied that I had no idea, but we were going to find out. More…